November 2006 - The Milford Track (NZ)
10/11/06
As those of you who have been following our travels will know, we returned to New Zealand in August to look after my mother who is having some health issues.
We decided to take the opportunity while here to see some more of our homeland. In September we booked onto a guided walk of the Milford Track (touted as "the finest walk in the world"). As we understood that the walk was quite demanding and traversed an alpine pass, we started training for the walk immediately. After what seemed like a lot of practise walking we headed for Queenstown on Friday the 3rd. The plan was that I would carry the camera gear and tripod and Tracey would carry everything else. Now before you start bombing me with "poor Tracey email" - both packs weighed about the same (13kg).
I will let the photo gallery below tell the story of the walk - we both really enjoyed every part of the experience and felt that it was extremely well organised and executed. We would recommend it to everyone, it is an experience of a lifetime. A special thanks goes out to our guides for the trip ... Eiji, (knock three times) Nick, Kathryn and last but not least 'B'. They were all great fun and very good at their jobs.
Some quotes from the trip...
"My bladder has leaked and now my pants are all wet" - (Kathryn talking about her hydration bladder after it leaked inside her pack)
"Has Tracey gone to the toilet? - I hope she doesn't blow-off" - (Kathryn talking about Tracey in the strong wind on the top of McKinnon Pass)
"What is a liver" - (Hayden after Eiji explained that a Fiord is carved by a glacier and a Sound is carved by a 'liver' (river in a Eiji's strong Japanese accent))
Day one - Queenstown - Te Anau - Glade House
 The group - fresh and ready for anything |
 The beginning of the track |
 Glade House from the swing bridge |
Day Two - Glade House to Pompolona Lodge
 Water everywhere |
 But Tracey can't play the piano |
Day Three - Pompolona Lodge to Quintin Lodge (Over the pass)
 B gets her boots cleaned by a Kea |
 A Chopper in the mist |
 A Kea at the top of Mackinnon Pass |
 When the fog clears .. the view! |
 The very top of the pass |
Day Four - Quintin Lodge to Sandfly Point
 Sutherland Falls - NZs highest |
 In the mood for walking |
 Reflections |
 Oh the views |
 The end of the track - we made it! |
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Stats:
In the four days we walked the track, we covered just over 66km (including all the side tracks)
I wore a heart rate monitor while walking and it recorded the consumption of 591 kCaleries on the first day, 2724 on the second, 4286 on the third day (over the pass) and 3340 kCaleries on the last day of walking.
That's a total of 10491 KCal in four days - no wonder there are no overweight guides around by the end of the season.